Tourneys: Why do people TD and Volunteer?

[gwillim]

I co-TD a few B and C-tiers and an A-Tier every year. We always send out e-surveys after each event to get feedback from the players. The responses are generally overwhelmingly positive. It is, however, easier to remember the bad comments than the good ones. I don't take things personally, so it's no big deal and it's good for us to know what people didn't like, so we know where we need to improve.

A couple years ago, one of the survey's came back with one of the participants upset that the player pack was too big. "I won't use all this stuff, it's a total waste of my entry fee" or something to that affect. Meanwhile, 90% of the other survey results mentioned how much they loved such a big player pack. We got a laugh out of that one.

TDing events can at times be very thankless and frustrating, but overall I feel I am treated very well and thanked appropriately by the participants at my events. I believe my Co-TD feels the same way. You have to accept that there are people that are not happy unless they're mad, and that most people are more quiet when they are satisfied, so it's easier to notice the upset people even though they are by far the minority.

All-in-all I love it. Otherwise I wouldn't do it.

 

[CaptainAnhyzer]

You have to accept that there are people that are not happy unless they're mad.

GREAT way to describe these people.

 

[DavidSauls]

Davidsauls. You and your brothers run a great tourny. Would hope you guys make a little something for your time and all. Otherwise I need to start buying more Stoney hill rinos

Thanks for your kind words. It's hard to separate out the tournaments from the course; at the Stoney Hill Challenge, we usually make a little money, which helps defray the costs of maintaining the course. The Battle of Stoney Hill is a charity fundraiser for The Children's Heart Foundation, so our losses are our donation to the charity.

We have the benefit of having a small disc golf store, so we get the full margin and don't have to worry about overstock. We have to rent a porta-john but don't have to rent the course or facilities, which also puts us ahead of many events.

So we don't ever put any money in our pockets, but we get Stoney Hill. Which is a pretty good deal.

And my "party" analogy, from many posts back, is exactly the way we look at hosting tournaments. We hope our guests feel the same. We can't offer big payouts but we can offer a weekend camping and playing disc golf in our yard.

 

[DanJon]

Running a league is thankless soul sucking work. Rather play casual rounds or just hike instead. To hell with entitled disc golfers.

Haha. I was just talking about this with friends.

Disc Golfers are for the most part selfish, entitled people.

Always wanting and expecting more.

Other activities and sports, participants are happy to pay just to have the chance to take part in an organized event of sorts.

They dont expect big payouts and side prizes, which of course someone else should pay for.

But yeah, its fun to play disc golf, but not too much fun to organize competitive disc golf

 

[OlyWA Kenobi]

To answer OP's question; I volunteer because I care. I care because I value. I want the same for others.

About 5yrs ago I got a group of guys together to form a Disc Golf Club. We worked with local governments to bring Disc Golf to our area. Hours and hours of meetings, phone calls, council meetings, PRAC meetings, Club meetings, more phone calls, and more meetings. Through this process I began to realize something; what had once started as a selfish reasoning of wanting a Course near my house, turned into advocating for a Disc Golf Community. For a Community. For others, not me. Eventually I relinquished more role as President to a guy who I think is a great leader and ambassador for the sport.

5yrs later, I find myself in a role where I can be of service to the Disc Golf Community once again. I've partnered with the local Pro Shop owner on a number of projects. Our partnership has taken on a creed, or Mission Statement; "To serve the Disc Golf Community". Simple. After a Summer of events, we have seen the fruit of our labors. We've seen people, who at one time might not have thought shared our Mission Statement, show interest in supporting and volunteering. Because they began to care about what we were doing (ie. our events), the local Course, the local Club, the local Pro Shop, and most importantly, the growing Disc Golf Community that they are a part of. They care because they found value in those things. Once value was found, they had a natural desire to take care of it

 

[hellbound]

And my "party" analogy, from many posts back, is exactly the way we look at hosting tournaments. We hope our guests feel the same. We can't offer big payouts but we can offer a weekend camping and playing disc golf in our yard.

I will say that your tournyments are more like partys. Hope to see you guys at the huk

 

[Three Putt]

The last event I ran was a charity event. It was not sanctioned and clearly advertised as trophy only-no cash or merch payouts. I got yelled at all day by people from out of town that showed up and found out then that there was no payout. Like it's my fault that they drove two hours for an event that they spent zero time investigating the format of and just expected that once they got there it would magically be run the way they wanted it to be.

Getting yelled at about the payout in a non-sanctioned charity event was pretty much the last straw for me.

 

[DavidSauls]

The last event I ran was a charity event. It was not sanctioned and clearly advertised as trophy only-no cash or merch payouts. I got yelled at all day by people from out of town that showed up and found out then that there was no payout. Like it's my fault that they drove two hours for an event that they spent zero time investigating the format of and just expected that once they got there it would magically be run the way they wanted it to be.

Getting yelled at about the payout in a non-sanctioned charity event was pretty much the last straw for me.

Yell back.

Or offer to pay, out of pocket, for their remedial reading classes.

That would really suck. I'm pretty sure I'd lose my civility at that point.

 

[DavidSauls]

I will say that your tournyments are more like partys. Hope to see you guys at the huk

But, to be clear lest anyone on this thread be misled---

Not very wild parties.

 

[BraveThrower43]

I enjoy running an event that allows others, for the most part, to enjoy themselves. It feels good to put a lot of work in and be rewarded with people leaving happy.

 

[davetherocketguy]

The last event I ran was a charity event. It was not sanctioned and clearly advertised as trophy only-no cash or merch payouts. I got yelled at all day by people from out of town that showed up and found out then that there was no payout. Like it's my fault that they drove two hours for an event that they spent zero time investigating the format of and just expected that once they got there it would magically be run the way they wanted it to be.

Getting yelled at about the payout in a non-sanctioned charity event was pretty much the last straw for me.

To be completely and utterly misinformed about an event must be a discgolfer thing and I just don't get it. How hard is it to read the description prior to traveling out there? Not ONCE have I been surprised by an event with either payouts or set up. I did actually run across some rather confused individuals who were surprised to find out that the tourney was 2 rounds and not one. :|

I'm with DavidSauls, I'd probably become a little uncivilized if someone yelled at me over that. Think, Full Metal Jacket opening drill sergeant scene.

 

[Three Putt]

I enjoy running an event that allows others, for the most part, to enjoy themselves. It feels good to put a lot of work in and be rewarded with people leaving happy.

See, I was a recreation supervisor for a dozen years. I ran programs for a living. It was long hours and little pay. I ran off that feeling. That feeling that I did something that helped make life a little better for a bunch of other people kept me going for years and years. I know that feeling well, and it's awesome.

I got that feeling from little local disc golf events; local leagues and little events with low payout. People threw, had fun, they were fun to run. People thanked me for working hard for them.

The PDGA events gave me zero of that feeling. It was tons and tons of work over months and months just to have a lot of people bitch. Most of the people who bitched were from out of town, didn't know me, didn't know or care how much work I did for disc golf. They wanted more. It was the worst audience I ever dealt with. They were even worse than youth basketball parents, and that's a very high bar of poor behavior to hit. :|

 

[BraveThrower43]

See, I was a recreation supervisor for a dozen years. I ran programs for a living. It was long hours and little pay. I ran off that feeling. That feeling that I did something that helped make life a little better for a bunch of other people kept me going for years and years. I know that feeling well, and it's awesome.

I got that feeling from little local disc golf events; local leagues and little events with low payout. People threw, had fun, they were fun to run. People thanked me for working hard for them.

The PDGA events gave me zero of that feeling. It was tons and tons of work over months and months just to have a lot of people bitch. Most of the people who bitched were from out of town, didn't know me, didn't know or care how much work I did for disc golf. They wanted more. It was the worst audience I ever dealt with. They were even worse than youth basketball parents, and that's a very high bar of poor behavior to hit. :|

Work in recreation as well! :hfive:

 

[scarpfish]

But at the end I heard so much complaining about payouts.

I call those complainers spoiled brats.

 

[biscoe]

The TD's who do it over and over again tend to have short and selective memories. Every year as events at my course approach and I am out working on it I am saying to myself (and often anyone else who will listen) that I really have got to stop doing this crap which takes away from time spent on my real business and family time for no financial reward. Then the event comes around and people are nice and have a great time and the next thing you know the event is back on the schedule for the following year.

 

[Cgkdisc]

TDs who continue doing it seem to suffer from some level martyr complex.

 

[DavidSauls]

TDs who continue doing it seem to suffer from some level martyr complex.

I'm hoping to make it to the Director's Cup this year so we can share war stories. Though when I looked at the roster last year, it looked like a lot of civilians were allowed in.

 

[DavidSauls]

The TD's who do it over and over again tend to have short and selective memories. Every year as events at my course approach and I am out working on it I am saying to myself (and often anyone else who will listen) that I really have got to stop doing this crap which takes away from time spent on my real business and family time for no financial reward. Then the event comes around and people are nice and have a great time and the next thing you know the event is back on the schedule for the following year.

Ah, yes.

I spend he week before our events freaking out---between tournament duties and course prep duties. By Wednesday I'm asking if there's any way we can cancel. It takes me about a week, after the cleanup and the TD report are done, before I can start talking about "next year".

Next event is November 1-2, so if this thread lasts into late October, please forgive me for anything I may post then.

 

[banknwank]

I would say love of the game is first for most and money might be motivator for others. Some events are true fund raisers for different situations and all surplus funds go to some form of donation. Our winter warrior series raises a lot of money for local food bank.
Say 100 people enter a $30 dollar tourney... $3000. $500-1000 in players packs, $500-700 park fee? ( not sure what the average price is). $1000 in payouts....worst case , leaving $300 for td......tiniest extra cost could make it a wash. best case , $1000 for td. Not a bad weekend for the average working stiff.

 

[DSmith]

I always enjoyed running the Ice Bowl tournaments over the bigger tier sanctioned stuff. Nothing like handing over a big check to the charity and the look on their faces. That said though I did enjoy running A and B tiers, cause it was always a fun rush getting it together and getting everyone in the area hyped up. I never minded working on getting the courses prepped (3 courses for the Lexington Opens) since I pretty much lived on the courses anyway.